Senate Democrats have proposed legislation that would ban Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents from hiding their faces amid mass arrests that critics are describing as kidnappings. The bill, introduced by Alex Padilla of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, would require officers from ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and other state and federal agencies used for immigration enforcement, to clearly display their agency and either their name or badge number, and would prohibit them from obscuring their identities using non-medical face coverings except where officer safety allows, the Guardian reports.
Padilla said the "lack of transparency" among agents making immigration arrests "endangers public safety by causing confusion, fear, and mistrust" and also poses risks for law enforcement, "particularly when individuals cannot distinguish real officers from impersonators." Last month, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons defended officers' use of face masks, saying "people are out there taking photos of the names and their faces and posting them online with death threats."
On Monday, Padilla, Booker, and 13 other Democratic senators wrote to Lyons, saying masked, plainclothes officers grabbing people off the street "with no identification of their name or agency" appears intended to "engender fear and sow chaos" and avoid accountability. Eighteen states have sued the Trump administration over the practice, most recently Minnesota, per CBS News. "What ICE is doing is so dangerous," says Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison, referencing video of masked ICE agents arresting a graduate student, who believed she was being kidnapped. The Senate bill echoes a state Senate bill in California, dubbed the "No Secret Police Act," introduced by Democrats last month, per KABC.
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